Seal-lock.



SEA CK.

. APPLICATION FILED MAY 13. l9l5. 1,189,304. Patented July 4,1916.

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SEAL LOCK.'

APBUQAUQN HLED MAY 13. 191 5.

Patented July 4, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WALTER L. STANLEY, 0F NORFOLK, VIRGINIA.

SEAL-LOCK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 4, 1916.

Application filed May 13, 1915. Serial No. 27,907.

Y '0 all whomit may concern:

Be it known that I, IVALTER L. STANLEY, a citizen of the United States, residin at Norfolk, in the'county of Norfolk and tate of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seal-Locks, of which the following is a specification.

My invention'relates to an improvement in seals, more especially for car doors and windows.

While the invention is designed more particularly for car-doors,'and has for its object absolute prevention of tampering with the lock and opening the door without detection, still it is perfectly obvious that it is applicable to any apparatus where a seal is used, for instance a car or other window.

The present invention has the advantage,

7 however, over many of the seals now in use,

namely that it positively precludes the possibility. of surreptitious tampering with the door, or object sealed, without the absolute betrayal of the fact.

With these objects in view, the invention consists in a bolt which carries atemporary seal or closure of any suitable material, both the bolt and temporary closure or seal becoming automatically locked when the bolt is thrown, whereby to prevent access to the thing locked without destroying the closure or seal either by one authorized to open the lock, or, when unauthorized, insuring the betrayal ofthe clandestine tampering with the bolt.

In the accompanying drawings :Figure 1 is a view showing my invention in posi: tion to look a sliding car-door;'Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view; Figs. 3 and 4 are vertical longitudinal sections, showing the sliding bolt in its extreme positions; Fig. 5 is a transverse section on line 5-5 of Fig. 3, and Figs. 6, 7 and 8 are views showing the bolt modified slightly to make it adaptable to a swinging-door.

Referring to the construction-shown in Figs. '1, 2, 3 and 4, in which the bolt is shown applicable to a car having a sliding door, the numeral 1 represents a hollow bolt. This is preferably rectangular in cross-section and fitted to a casing 2' stationed at any convenient point within the car, either on the floor or at a higher point,

i and extending through an opening 3 in the side of the car, or through thedoor if preferred. In this form of seal the bolt slides in and out of the casing, either into loosely through the openings 5, 5, in its top and bottom, and the upper end of this bolt extends through an elongated slot 6 in the top of the bolt casing, which slot extends lengthwise of thecasing or transversely of the car, in this form of the invention. The lower end of. the gravity pin rests on the bottom of the casingwhen the bolt is drawn into, the car out of the path of the door, the inner end of the elongated slot 6 acting as a stop which the gravity pin strikes when it reaches this point, thus preventing the further movement of the bolt. A cotter or other device 7 in the gravity-pin 4 serves as a handle for lifting the gravity pin from the outside, and also as a means of preventing its being lifted out of the bolt. An opening in thebottom of the bolt casing is located immediately below the outer end of the elongated slot into which the gravity pinautomatically drops when the bolt is pushed out to lock the door. The bolt carriesa seal or temporary closure 8, which may be made of glass, veneer, paper, baked clay, or' any other easily destructible material. 'Glass has some advantages, however, and principally that it is transparent. This seal will carry a number, character, or dis-- an opening beneath the outer end of the' elongated slot, and the seal is also locked against removal from the bolt. The opening'12 in the outer end ofthe bolt is sufliciently smaller than the size of the seal so that a new one'could not be inserted therethrough, and as an additional precautionary measure against substituting a new seal or closure, the size of the interior of the bolt less size than the size of the seal 'or'temporary closure. Thus it is understood in the application and operation of this improvement that while the bolt may be slid out through an opening in the side of the car in the path of the door, either in the region of the floor, roof, or any intermediate point in the side of the car, or through the cardoor itself, it is always placed in a position to lock the door by pulling it out from outside the car, and, as a. convenient means to facilitate pulling the bolt out, a recess 13 is formed in the lower side of the bolt to receive the operators fingers. To open the door, the seal or temporary closure is, of course, broken. The pin is raised, and the bolt is pushed back in to a position flush with the side of the car to allow the cardoor A to be slid open.

In the form of the invention illustrated in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, the principle is precisely the same, but this form of bolt is applicable to any form of swinging doors B and B, for instance such as are quite commonly used on refrigerator-cars. The side of the bolt-casing 14: in this instance is secured in an opening 15 in the door B, flush with the outer surface thereof, the adjacent side of the casing 14: approximately corresponding with the thickness of the door, so that the bolt when thrown or slid outward will be against the inner surface of the other door B, which is, of course, first bolted, hooked or otherwise secured in place. The boltcasing let has an opening or window 16, and its side has a corresponding opening 17 with edges to receive the seal 18, which latter is dropped through a slot 19 in the top of the casing, and a corresponding slot 20 at the top of the opening 17 when the bolt is slid back or withdrawn. A gravity-pin 21 is slidably connected with the bolt, as in the former construction; its upper end passing through an elongated slot 24:, and its lower end dropping by gravity into an opening 25 into the bottom of the casing 14 to automatically lock the bolt when it is projected. A knob 26 connected with the bolt passes through a'slot 27, as a convenient means to slide the bolt from the outside. As in the other form of the invention, when the bolt is pushed out, the bolt is automatically locked, and the seal'isat the same time locked against removal. Also, as in the other form, the gravity pin is just back of the seal so that, when the latter is broken, access from the outside may be had to the gravity bolt to lift it, whereupon the bolt may he slid back out of the way. In this way, I have provided an effectual means, as outlined in the statement of objects, of preventing the opening of the sealed door by anyone without the destruction of the seal. The seal must be put into the bolt from inside the car, especially in the sliding-door construction.

My improvement is so placed that it will be easy for one walking on the ground to glance into the orifice and get the information desired which will be found on the seal. Thus arecord is easily kept without incurring the present chances of mistake, and without necessitating the manual handling of the seal in order to get the data.

I claim:

1. The combination of a bolt, a slotted bolt-casing, and seal insertible into the bolt through the slot of the casing when the latter is out of its locked position, the bolt carrying a locking means which automatically locks the bolt when thrown, and prevents the removal of the seal from the bolt, by precluding the registry of the seal with the slot of the casing.

2. The combination with a bolt-casing, of a bolt slidably fitted within the casing, the bolt having a gravity pin carried by the bolt which automatically locks the latter when the bolt is in its locking position, the bolt and casing having openings therethrough which are in registry when the bolt is in an unlocked position, and a seal insertible through said openings and carried by the bolt andprevented from removal therefrom when the bolt is in its locking position.

3. The combination with a hollow bolt and bolting casing, the bolt having openings in thetop and bottom, a gravity pin extending through said openings, the casing having an elongated slot in its top through which the pin moves in the sliding of the bolt, and the bottom of the casing having an opening to receive the pin when the bolt is in the position of looking a door, and a seal carried by the bolt and located in a position in front of the gravity-pin and prevented from removal bodily from the bolt when the latter is in a locking position.

at. The combination with a longitudinally slotted casing, a bolt having a locking means slidably connected therewith and movable with the bolt throughout the length of the slot, the bolt having grooves, a seal adapted to be inserted in the groove of the bolt and carried thereby, and the casing having a slot with which the groove is adapted to register and through which the seal is inserted transversely into the bolt when said groove and slot are in registry.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

WALTER L. STANLEY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

